Liverpool City Region2016-18 Programme

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Revised LCR Round Two–08.11.2016

  1. What is the European Social Fund (ESF)?
  2. What is the purpose of ESF Community Grants?
  3. What kind of organisations can apply for these grants?
  4. Who should benefit from the grants? Which are the target groups?
  5. How much money is available per grant?
  6. How long is funding available? How many funding rounds are there?
  7. What activities can be funded through these grants? What cannot?
  8. Who do we apply to?
  9. What is the WEA?
  10. When can we apply?
  11. Is there any support or advice available to help us apply?
  12. How should we submit our application?
  13. How will decisions be made?
  14. How soon will we find out the result?
  15. What can we do if we are unsuccessful?
  16. What will we need to do if we are successful?
  17. How will the grant bepaid?
  18. Any other questions? If you have any other questions please get in touch with the ESF Grants Team at WEA by email:

1.What is the European Social Fund (ESF)?

ESF was set up to improve employment opportunities in the European Union (EU)and so help raise standards of living. It aims to help people fulfil their potential by giving them better skills and better job prospects.

It supports the EU's goal of increasing employment by giving unemployed and disadvantaged people the training and support they need to enter jobs. By focusing on those most in need of help, it contributes to policies to reduce inequality and build a fairer society. ESF also equips the workforce with the skills needed by businesses in a competitive global economy.

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2. What is the purpose of ESF Community Grants?

The aim is to enable small third sector organisations, which would not otherwise be able to access ESF, to apply for small grants.

These are grantsavailable to organisesupport to some hardly reached communities and individuals, to help them access employment or further learning and training.

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3.What kind of organisations can apply for these grants?

This funding can only be awarded to third sector organisations run on a not-for-profit basis, includingconstitutedcommunity and voluntary groups, charities & social enterprises, currently delivering their project activity within the Liverpool City Region. We may examine public information about Registered Charities, Companies Limited by Guarantee and Community Interest Companies (CICs) which apply. Companies limited by shares cannot apply.

You must notalready be in direct receipt of funding from the European Social Fund, or other ESF co-financing with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), Skills Funding Agency (SFA), or National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

Only organisations with an annual turnover of less than £500,000(excluding charitable donations and fundraising) in their last financial year can apply, OR you must employ no more than 10 staff (full time equivalent).

NB these are CHANGES from the previous rules for eligibility.

We will not fund organisations whose governing documents allow profits or dividends to be shared among directors and employees. In the case of Companies Limited by Guarantee or Community Interest Companies (CICs) your governing document should make it clear that any surplus is reinvested to support the aims of the organisation or other social purposes, and any assets are transferred for public benefit in the event of dissolution.

To be eligible, your group should have been in existence for at least 12 months: we need to see an annual report covering your recent activities and achievements, and a published set of accounts for your last financial year.

We want to see your most recent Annual Report to get some broader context of the work of your organisation, its activities and achievements. A Charity Annual Report, Community Interest Company CIC34 Report, or Directors Report and Accounts (providing there is a substantial paragraph on activity and achievements during the year) would all suffice. If you do not already have such a document, regardless of whether you are legally obliged to have one, we require you to submit a brief report (500 words max) covering your activities and achievements in the past twelve months.

In order to protect public funds, independent inspection, verification or auditing of Accounts for yourlast financial year, appropriate to your constitutional status and size of turnover, is required. If you consider your group should be exempt from such requirements (e.g. in the case of charities with a turnover of less than £10,000 which are not companies limited by guarantee) you should contact the WEA’s ESF Community Grants Team in advance of submitting your application to check that the form of accounts you propose to submit will be acceptable. Further guidance is available.

Previous recipients of ESF Community Grants are eligible to apply again, but we would be looking for you to demonstrate your own organisational development. Your track record in the delivery and administration of your previous grant will be taken into consideration during project appraisal.

You are noteligible to apply if you are:

•Individuals (not representing a group) or groups that consist of one family

•Statutory bodies

•Organisations distributing profits to members or shareholders

•Grant making bodies applying for funding to redistribute to individuals or groups

•Political groups

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4.Who should benefit from the grants? Which are the target groups?

The programme is aimed at unemployed or economically inactive people,aged 15 years and over who are from the hardest to reach communitiesand who are legally resident in the UK and able to take paid employment in an EU member state.(NB this is a CHANGE from the 2011-15SFA rules)

Within this broad target group, the named priority groups in this ESF programme are:

  • People with disabilities or health conditions (including those with learning difficulties,mental health issues or drug and alcohol dependency problems)
  • Lone parents
  • People aged 50 or over and seeking employment
  • People from black and ethnic minorities
  • Women

Please note however that applications can be considered for any group of unemployed people that can evidence neede.g.ex-offenders, homeless people, 15-25 year olds etc.

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5.How much money is availableper grant?

The maximum grant you can apply forin round two is £25,000 and the minimum £10,000. An organisation can receive more than one grant in any 12 month period, butno organisation may receive more than £100,000 over the course of the programme.

(NB There is no separate funding for capacity building).

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6.How long is the funding available? How many funding rounds are there?

£920,000 is available to distribute as grants on Merseyside (Knowsley, Liverpool, St. Helens , Sefton, Wirral) in 2016-18, and £113,000 for Halton.

There will beat least threefunding rounds over the period: opening and closing dates are listed at How to Applyon the NW WEA website.

The funding allocated as grants in any round must be spent by 31 December 2017.

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7.What kind of activities can be funded through these grants? What cannot?

ESF Community Grants exist to support a range of activities aimed at assisting disadvantaged or excluded people who are out of work to move closer to the labour market by improving their access to employment and skills provision. This 2016-18 grant programme is to fund activities delivered in the Liverpool City Region.

Because the focus will be on individuals who have difficulty in accessing mainstream training and support,successful outcomes may often be more aboutdemonstrating progress than getting jobs and achieving qualifications.

ESF guidance is that these grants can support a wide range of activities including:

  • Initial help with basic skills
  • Taster work experience including voluntary work
  • Training, advice and counselling
  • Jobsearch assistance
  • Confidence building and personal development
  • First contact engagement activities (e.g. to provide support to individuals to overcome barriers to learning or employment)

ESF Community Grants cannot be used

  • For capital purchases (e.g. purchase of equipment) over £2,000 or 10% of your grant award, whichever is the larger. No individual item must be over £1,000 and three quotes are required for all items over £500.
  • To duplicate provision that is available through other ESF co-financing with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP),Skills Funding Agency (SFA), or National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

The funding applied for must be for the full cost of the proposed project, which should be additional to your normal programme of work.

Unlike some other previous ESF funding schemes, there is no expectation that you should find match funding for your grant from other sources (i.e. no other grant or monetary award should be involved in the funding of this activity – it must be separate).

Formoredetails see Application Form GuidanceNotes section 5(your budget) and Annex 1 (eligible expenditure).

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8.Who do we apply to?

The Skills Funding Agency has contractedthe Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) to be the Community Grants Coordinating Body for the Liverpool City Region in 2016-18.

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9. What is the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)?

The WEA is a large national voluntary adult education provider and registered charity no. 1112775 established in 1903. It has elected and appointed trustees and a committee democratically elected by members.In partnership with a wide range of voluntary and community groups the WEA runs over 10,000 courses a year with over 100,000 people taking part.See the national website:

The WEA North West region coversCumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester – with offices in Liverpool, Manchester and Workington.In the North West in partnership with a wide range of voluntary and community groups we run over 1,100 courses with over12,000 people taking part.

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10. When can we apply?

There are at least threefunding rounds in the current period that ESF Community Grants are available, 2016-18, beginning in August 2016. Please check How to Apply on ourwebsite for the timing of these rounds and the deadlines for applications to be submitted. Proposed project activity must end by 31stDecember 2017.

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11.Is there any support or advice available to help us apply?

You may wish to speak to a local infrastructure support agency, such as a Council for Voluntary Service, or a regional support agency covering your specialist client group or area of activity. The ESF grants team at WEA can only offer brief factual advice on the application process and cannot comment on the quality of your proposals.

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12.How should we submit our application?

All applicants are asked to complete a brief online eligibility assessment. If eligible you will be able to download an application form.

The application form should be submitted electronically (by email) by the deadline date AND then a signed hard copy with supporting documentation sent by recorded delivery within four working days. Both electronic and postal applications must be received by these deadlines - any received later will not be considered.See the final section (12) of the Application Form and Guidance Notes for fuller details of the process and checklist of supporting documentation required.

You may deliver hard copy applications by hand to our LiverpoolWEA office but please arrange this in advance to ensure a member of the ESF Grants Team will be available to receive and record it and give you a receipt as proof of delivery if required.

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13.How will decisions be made about which projects to fund?

After the close of each grant round, the ESF grants team at WEA will check applications for completeness, (including all required supporting documentation) and then refer each full application to a trained local appraisal panel.

These panels will use a systematic process to score all applications, taking account ofplanned outputs, track record, quality and value for money. (The scoring criteria used can be seen on our website.)This panel will then recommend which applications should be funded, for how much, and on what conditions. The Project Steering Group (PSG) then meets to consider these recommendations and make the final decision.

For details of how to apply to be a panel member and information on the remit and membership of the PSG see our website. Back to Top

14. How soon will we find out the result?

Timescales for each grant round arepublished on our website. We are aiming for successful projects to be contacted within five weeks of the closing date of the grant round.

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15. What can we do if we are unsuccessful?

You will receive an email from us notifying you of the outcome of your application which will include brief general feedback from the panel on why your application has been unsuccessful. If unsuccessful you are welcome to apply again in the next round of ESF Community Grants (details of the dates of each round can be found on our website ). Due to high volumes of expected applications, we regret we are unable to enter into detailed individual discussions. However you are welcome to contact any of the organisations mentioned in section 11 above for support before submitting further applications. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the process,please discuss it first with the ESF grants team at WEA. If the matter cannot be resolved in this way, the WEA has a complaints procedure, which can be accessed via the “Feedback” link on the national WEA website.

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16.What will we need to do if we are successful?

If you are successful we will need to visit you at your learning venue before you are offered a grant.Once this has been completed, you will be invited to a mandatoryinduction workshop to collect your grant offer letter and contract. You will then be required to sign the contract with the WEA, as the ESF Community Grant awarding body, agreeing to the terms and conditions of grant awards. This will also be where the monitoring and grant payment processes are explained in detail, where your support needs are discussed and where any necessary additional documentscan be looked at and approved.You can start spending on your project from the day your contract is signed.Please note however that funding will only be in your account 2-3 weeks after we receive your initial claim Invoice.

You will also be provided with project management guidance and templates of documentation to be completed.See our website. The ESF grants team at WEA will be available to give continued information and support via telephone or email throughout the duration of your project.

For fuller details see our Application Form Guidance Notes - Annex 2.

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17. How will the grant be paid?

Grants will be paid in three parts via BACS transfer directly into your organisation’s bank account.

The initial payment in advanceof 50% of your approved total budget will be made once WEA as grant awarding body has completed a satisfactory monitoring visit and received signed acceptance of the grant offer letter.

A second grant payment of 25% in advance will be made once an interim monitoring report has been received, together with evidence of having spent the initial 50% payment.

A final grant payment in arrearsof 25% of your approved total budget will be made once the final monitoring report has been submitted to the WEA, complete with required financial evidence indicating that the total grant amount awardedhas been spent (defrayed).

The final claim is an important part of the grants process where submission of reports, learner records, receipts and other evidence of activity are required. Therefore it would be prudent to include sufficient admin costs for this in your staff budget on your application.

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